Demonic Angel
by princessepyon
Summary: The Angelic Layer Champion! The highest ranking Angelic player, Ryoko Kusanagi, has finally entered another tournament. Tatsuya is determined to beat her in battle and take her title.
1. New Layer

Missy: Okay, note: I don't use any characters from the manga, just the story, and as far as this fanfic is concerned none of those characters ever existed. Since the series is only out to book 3 in English (or was when I started writing this-- on the day of its release!) Obviously not many people know all about Angelic Layer yet. I took the main idea and kinda stretched it out, distorted it, poked it with a stick, then put it rudely back into place with a pair of tongs. But I was very pleased with the end result.

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Angelic Layer is the most popular game anywhere. Everyone's playing it, everyone watches it. It's everywhere. As technology itself improves, so does the game. Arenas and Angels both become more complex and more intricate as time passes. Huge tournaments are held, competing Angels tear their tiny opponents into pieces while hundreds of people flock to watch the fights. But not only the systems are advancing.

The more fights are held, the more gruesome they become. What started as simple martial arts has quickly evolved into armed battles, the Angels now having weapons available to them. Knives have been added to the fights, the uses ranging from swords to blade-mounted gauntlets. More and more people are playing, and many more are watching, as the fights become more and more violent.

The Angelic Layer champion is, as will very well always be, a little girl. Ryoko Kusanagi. She's short, she's skinny, and best of all she's thirteen. A juvenile delinquent in real life, Ryoko was never good at anything but kicking butt in her school. All that ever got her was detention. So when Angelic Layer came out, she came running into it and immediately took the competition by storm.

Many kids her age have tried to come close to her status, but it seems like no one can even come close to what Ryoko can do. Because of this, she and her Angel have been dubbed the Demonic Angels of the Layer. Her power-type Angel Rue isn't only strong. She's fast, she's agile, she's the black-haired, fishnet wearing, blade-toting doll. And no one can match her.

Then there's Tatsuya Miko. Constantly teased for his last name, Tatsuya started playing Angelic Layer to try and prove that he's not a loser. Of course, it didn't work at all and now he's even more of a loser than he was before, carrying around a velvet-clad doll and trying to prove something. The poor guy can't get a break. Even since Ryoko took the Angelic Layer throne, he and his power-type Angel, Rina, have been studying Rue's fighting style and trying day and night to find it's secret!

Finally, there's Megumi. No one ever noticed her, or even remembers her last name when they meet her. No one really remembers any of her, really. She's just like Ryoko, minus the ass-kicking. She's been working secretly on her speed-type Angel, Feng. She figures that if she has a speed Angel, and works really hard, she can be just as good as a power angel but twice as swift.

But her idea doesn't seem to be working, as Feng may be fast but she's weak. Megumi doesn't seem to be able to get down the real fighting aspects of the game, and can only jump around and get hit. She's never been in a real official fight before, only practiced against her friends and Tatsuya. She's too shy to go out there in front of all those people.

But there's another tournament coming up, and word has it that Ryoko Kusanagi is going to be murdering a few more competitors in the ring. Suddenly the fight has a few hundred people competing, the ultimate prize being the defeat of the great Demonic Angel!

Angelic Fight!

"Rina versus Feng, Angelic Fight!" Tatsuya faked an announcer's voice, the two Angels glaring at eachother across the Layer. It was a flat Layer, and neither of the Angels had any weapons.

Rina crouched, looking ready to pounce but remaining still. She was dressed in a head to toe, cover all, dark gray ninja get-up. Her eyes, hair, and her hands were all that was showing. Her eyes were dark blue, her short, straight hair the same color. Tatsuya tensed, watching Feng intently.

Feng stood still, looking anxiously at Rina. She didn't take a fighting stance, she didn't put up a guard, nothing. She looked like an idiot, standing there in a sky blue gi. The belt, of course, was black, but she didn't seem to deserve it. Her hair was just to her shoulders, light brown, with an insane amount of layering. Her eyes were gray. She looked less like a fighter and more like a little girl dressed up at Halloween.

Feng suddenly leapt at Rina, tackling the power Angel and sending them both skidding across the Layer. "Whoa!" Tatsuya himself jumped. Rina kicked Feng off, easily throwing her off the side of the Layer. Megumi ran to catch the doll, tugging gently at the gi and pulling it back into place.

"How do you keep doing that?"

"Whatta ya' mean?"

"You always throw me off the layer so fast! How do you do that?"

"Uh," He picked Rina up off the Layer, pulling the headset off and setting it down on his chair, "Not sure. Is Feng okay?"

"Yea, she's fine."

"I'm sorry Meg."

"It's okay. It's not you, anyway." She gripped Feng tightly in both hands, starring at the floor.

"Are you still going to enter the contest?"

"Yea. I still want to try, even if I lose. Maybe I can win in a real fight?"

"Sure," Tatsuya said hesitantly, "Maybe since you know it's practice, you don't take it seriously." He gestured towards her Angel, "And we can get you some kind of sword or something?"

"Well, I don't know anything about swords."

"You could always learn." He smiled, "Or you could get some other kind of weapon. Maybe if you had them on her arms, like Rue."

Megumi snorted, "You're always talking about that Angel."

"Well, she's the best Angel. It could work, you wanna try it?"

"I don't know."

"If you don't want to. But we only have a few days until the tournament starts, so maybe you wouldn't have time to get used to a weapon. You could start," He glanced over at her, "Trying to learn some strategies."

"I'd rather just beat the circuits out of them head-on. I don't get battle tactics, they don't make any sense to me."

Tatsuya nodded slowly, "I guess. But you're gunna have to get some kind of powerful moves if you want to beat Ryoko."

"I don't care about beating Ryoko, that's what you want to do. I just want to win one match."

"But you've never fought in a real match before. Why didn't you enter any smaller contests before this?"

"Because..." She trailed off.

"Don't know?"

She shook her head.

"Okay." Tatsuya glanced up at the clock, "Our time's up."

"Oh, yea." Megumi picked up her backpack from a corner, sitting Feng on her shoulder, "I gotta get going, then." She turned and walked abruptly out of the room.

"Meg," Tatsuya sighed, "You're just too afraid to lose."


	2. The Day Before

Missy: Uh, we here at the Otaku Corporation would like to remind you that we don't own Angelic Layer and are very bothered that we didn't come up with it first. The main idea of the game were created by CLAMP and not myself, though the characters and the Angels were of my own happy design *looks proud* Even though the idea of Angels was not my own. Ack, okay, that's a long and tedious disclaimer. That's all.

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Megumi sighed, laying facedown on her bed. Feng was perched on her pillow in an oblivious sort of way. Of course I'm sure most inanimate objects are pretty oblivious. Meg looked up at her, the doll starring back with a blank look. She sighed, rolling over onto her back and looking up at the ceiling fan.

A faint knock at the door echoed down the hall to her room. Had there been any other sound, Megumi probably wouldn't be able to hear it. She crawled off the fluffy bed reluctantly and stalked down the hall. The knock came again before she could reach the door, more impatient this time. "I'm coming, I'm coming Megumi growled, throwing the door open and immediately freezing, "Oh, hi Tenko."

The tall girl standing just outside smiled, waving one hand, "Hi Meg-chan. Sure took ya' long enough to answer."

"You're so kind."

"I know. Oh, yea, why I came," Tenko reached into her oversized shoulder bag, digging around for a minute and drawing out an Angel, "I wanted to know if you could help me with something for my new Angel."

"Tenko, I can't-- Wait, new Angel? What happened to your old one?"

"Um, you mean Mika?"

"Yea, your last Angel. The pink one."

"Oh," Tenko bit her lip, "I just felt like getting a new one, a different style and all." She smiled weakly, "Anyway, look at my new one."

Megumi took the Angel from her friend's outstretched hand. It was a little on the big side for a normal Angel, but not too huge. She was dressed in a school uniform, a white blouse with an orange ribbon around the collar. She had white stockings, an orange knee-long skirt and dark brown Mary Jane shoes. Her hair was hardly to her chin, a dark red color. She looked more like a little girl's doll than an Angel, but when it really came down to it that's all an Angel was. Megumi handed it back to Tenko, "It's cute."

"Yea, and not all pink cutsey-poo like Mika was."

"But still kind of cutsey-poo. Just not pink."

Tenko shrugged, "All the same to me."

"Yea, sure." Megumi looked down at her feet momentarily before snapping her attention back to Tenko, "Oh, come in."

She looked at the door for a moment before suddenly realizing they had been standing on the front step the whole time. She giggled slightly, stepping past Meg into the house, "I didn't even notice."

"Neither did I."

"Have you seen Rina's new model?"

"Huh?" Meg looked up at the substantially taller Tenko, "New model?"

"Yes. Tatsuya-kun worked on her a lot yesterday night and she looks so cool now. She's got some new weapons, and I think she worked on her armor some," She held her Angel up again and looked at it, "Doesn't look at all like she did before. Kind of like Mika."

"What?" Megumi looked at the Angel, "I thought that was a new one."

Tenko blinked, "Oh, yes. It is."

"You never told me her name."

"It's..." Tenko's voice dropped. She looked at the floor quietly for a moment, "Mei."

"Sounds like Mika."

"Yea, I know." She mumbled, shuffling her feet.

Megumi watched her for a minute, wondering why she froze up so suddenly.

"Oh, yea, but Rina's new design is so cool. She's got these new weapons-- Or did I say that already? I did. Oops. Well she's positively evil looking, and when I saw him Tatsuya wouldn't stop talking about how much she looked like Ryoko now. He's obsessive, you know."

"Oh yea, I know."

"Have you done any work on Feng for the tournament?"

"No."

"Practiced a lot?"

"No."

"Anything?"

"Nothing at all."

"Well geeze!" Tenko laughed, "How do you ever expect to win?"

-----

Tatsuya turned Rina over in his hands, inspecting the thin Angel armor. He sighed, setting her down on the kitchen table in front of him. "The tournament starts tomorrow. You look ready."

The phone rang, pulling him out of his thought train and slowly bringing him to the realization that he had been talking to a toy. He stood up and walked across the room to the phone, picking it up with a sigh, "Hello?"

"Hi Tatsuya-kun!"

He snorted, "Hi Nina. What's up?"

"I wanted to know what time the whole Angelic Layer thing was tomorrow, since I was gunna come and cheer you on and everything."

"It's a nice though, but I don't really need a cheer leader, Nina-chan."

"I wanna watch your fights. I've never really seen you in Angelic Layer before. And I also wanted to see Rina now."

He paused, "What do you mean 'now'?"

"Oh," Nina giggled, "Tenko was going around telling everyone about the changes you made on Rina."

"Geeze!" Tatsuya muttered, "She can never keep her mouth shut. Um, so is your bother coming?"

"Unfortunately, yes."

"Ah come on, he's not that bad."

"I'm amazed you two get along, he hates all my other friends."

"We're a couple years younger than him. It's an age thing." He shifted and leaned against the kitchen counter, "Unless he can't stand Tenko's incessant rambling."

"Maybe," Nina giggled, "but neither can I."

"I don't think anyone can." Tatsuya mumbled, looking across the kitchen at the Angel sitting on the table. From a distance, she looked just like she had months ago when she had first been made. And maybe, for just a split second, she looked like a real little person. He shook his head, _I gotta stop doing that._

"So what time is it, then?"

"Huh? Oh, it starts at 1:00 in the afternoon. I think you're gunna want to get there before then, I bet the stands fill up really fast."

"Okay, thanks. Well bye then, I guess, and good luck."

"'Kay. Bye." Tatsuya hung up, waiting for a moment with his hand on the reciever before picking it back up and dialing. "Hi Tenko. Listen, can you do me a favor? It's really important."

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Missy: 'We here at the Otaku Corporation'? I think I'm the only member of OC948! Ok, that chapter was shorter. Most of them will be longer than that, since the next chapter starts-- At long last, the tournament!


End file.
